A Home For The Technologically Inept

Having to had provide tech support to many people over the years (One of my favorites: But how do I double-click the mouse?), I found the Assisted Computer Facility living place to be a wonderful idea. Just think - an environment where people could /safetly/ learn about the difference between a drink coaster and the CD-ROM drive.

Comments

Sure, it's a joke, but...

[Wakko Warner]

...something like this really *wouldn't* be a bad idea. Some people just aren't as technically adept as your average /.'er, and really could use some help learning basic computing skills. This isn't a put-down or anything; I've met some people who are honest-to-God scared of computers, which, in this day and age, isn't good from a professional standpoint in many jobs. A "training course" in something like Windows 9x and computer terminology and hardware would be very helpful for many people (and would also be a good tax write-off for any company willing to provide it on a gratis basis...)

- A.P.

--
Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?

It's not just the users who need this camp

[chrisvr]

See The Chronicles of George. Not everyone who answers the phone at the tech desk is the technology wunderkind everybody here seems to be :-)

Tech Support Woes

[Ted V]

One of my friends worked in tech support for a while.

This woman once called him up for help finding a file. My friend was telling her to change directories in a dos prompt:

"Type this in at the prompt: C - D ..."

*click* *click*

"Space"

*click* *click* *click* *click* *click*

"Did you just type in S-P-A-C-E?"

"Space, just like you told me"

"No, you're supposed to hit the spacebar"

*click*

"But you have to delete the old letters first. Hit backspace" *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click*

I believe things went downhill from there. She never found her file, needless to say.

-Ted

3rd Warning Sign

[Drakantus]

Look at your email address. Does it end in "aol.com"?

If so, you may be technologically impaired.

I/O Mode

[Martin Spamer]

Many years, ago when a 4.7Mhz IBM XT PC was state of the art, I was told to call new customer who had a problem printing, a hardware engineer had already called and the XT & Epson were fine. It must be a problem with the software, so I called the customer.

The first thing he did was claim the system is not working in 'output mode' " when I ask him to elaborate, he explains he was entering his customer details into the system & it was was working fine in 'I' mode, but as soon as tried 'O' mode to print the details out the system stopped working.

He kept refering to I and O modes, in relation to entering and printing details. I talked him through some tests of entering some details and trying to print them out. I explored every thing I could think of, he repeatedly reported there was no output, there did seem to be a problem printing. Unusual as we supplied a standardised system of software, XT and epson printer.

I decide to visit him in person, after all it was time out of the office, when I'm shown the PC, he's in a meeting and can't be with me. I start checking out the PC, quickly print some console output,its fine; I print a report from the application, it rattles out on the printer; it's all fine. I leave the report on his desk and head back. Now firstly remember at this time mobile phones are something out of science fiction movies. So when I get back to the office to find a message, it is still not working, he's been calling every 10 min's for the last hour demanding I return immediately, I do so without even stopping for a coffee.

On arrival, I'm certain every thing is OK, and it's user error, however he's livid, indeed purple with rage. I'm on tenderhooks, even though I know the system is fine, I need to find out what it is and diplomatically correct it, fat chance in his current mood. I ask me to demonstrate what he's doing. He enters some details, displays them on screen, everything is fine, so far. He then reaches round the right hand side of the PC, and flicks the bright orange button marked 'I' and 'O', I'm stunned for a moment, "NO!! DONT DO THAT!"I shout, but it's too late it's off.

It's the On/Off switch! instantly it all makes horrifying sense!

Moral: Take NOTHING for granted when doing end user support!

I could also tell you about the time I asked an end user to send me copies of their apparently corrupt back-up disks, and I received it by fax, but you simply wouldn't believe it :)

Thank Goodness!

[krugdm]

Do they give out referral bonuses? I have several coworkers who would be welcome candidates!

• Everyone who keeps calling their computer the "hard drive"
• Everyone who doesn't know the difference between RAM and the hard drive
• People who send documents and use the space bar instead of the tab key for formatting
• Everyone who can't grasp the concept that you need to actually log into the network to access things on the network

Where do I sign up?

Finding a file, windows style

[BillyGoatThree]

I was sitting across from my coworker when I overheard this:

Switch to the File Manager (this was Windows 3.1). OK, now on the menu bar...the MENU bar. Right under the title bar. The title bar is at the top of the screen--it's probably blue, with words in it. Right, there. The menu bar is right under that. No, that's the file list--above that. No, it's not the same as the title bar. It's *below* the title bar. No, that's the file list--look a little higher, but not as high as the title bar.

This went on for several minutes while we both switched to the File Manager ourselves to see if the menu bar could be hidden or something....
--

The scary part is...

[SID*C64]

I bet there are plenty of people out there who would enjoy such a thing :) Maybe if we created some sort of BioSphere like thing and put all of the AOL users in there... they could all just spam each other.